Wish upon the Stars chapter 483

Our signal to begin was the darkening of the sky. The glow of the  flag cast shadows across the valley, and I used the bond to make sure  Callie could see through the fog easily as Moonlit Night consumed the  space below us, covering the entire group below us in a thick blanket of  stealth.

I triggered State of Grace, nodding to the  others as Callie melted into the dark. Bethy flicked her fingers and her  cats melted into the mist, circling around. I grimaced as I felt a  strange tearing pain through my connection to the fog. Below us, I saw  entire sections of it begin to burn away as Nathaniel and my sister  started pouring their flame into it. Chelsea's flame burned through it  far less quickly, but both of them were opening up space.

"Callen."  I murmured, tapping his shoulder and connecting him to the skill. He  nodded, bent his knees, and hurled himself up into the air.

As  he came down, he slammed directly into the flame Nathaniel was using to  clear the fog feet first, and where his feet hit, cracks formed in the  flickering white fire. Callen stopped like he'd landed on rock, then his  foot lashed out from where he stood midair on the fire and smashed  Nathaniel in the face.

The red haired papal descendant  screamed in agony, blood gushing down his face, and Chelsea turned on  him, focusing her fire into a column of shimmering white. Callen drew  his short sword and lazily flicked it to one side, slashing the column  in two and splitting it before it hit him.

With that kind  of strength and power he was obviously capable of crushing the two of  them easily. The fact that he was starting a fight meant that my guess  about his intentions was right. He was more concerned with Chelsea's  growth than anything. I assumed he was starting a fight so she didn't  get too dependent on him. I wondered what his Path was, because that  fire stomping thing didn't seem like a skill, but I was quickly  distracted by Abel landing on the other side of the flag and wading in,  fists smashing into anyone in range.

Stepping forward a  few times, I kicked off the air with Ripple Running, landing gently in  front of Mel. I let the fog between us thin so she could see me as I  brought up my staff, my body already in my Belial form. "Mel." I said  cheerfully. "Good to see you. Fancy meeting you in this ominous foggy  valley." Just for effect I let Nathaniels screams tear through the fog  behind her, making her jump.

"Very nice." She chuckled. "I  love the ambiance. Of course, you realize that it doesn't matter?  You're here, alone, and unless Callie is about to jump out of my shadow  and backstab me, you're not winning this fight. I realize I'm lower  profile than my lunatic boyfriend, but don't forget I trained you too.  I'm not someone you can just knock aside."

I shrugged.  "I'm not the same person you trained. Not really. I've been through  quite a bit here. I've learned and grown more than a little. So, go  ahead and show me what you've got. I promise I can take it."

Raising  her hand, Mel curled her fingers, each of them sparking with a candle  flame, then she opened her hand, leaving the five flickering flames  dancing on her palm in midair like golden fireflies. "I've picked up  some tricks too. Here, watch." She waved her hand expansively and the  five flames shot out into the fog, stopping in various points around me.  Then she blurred forward, hands coated with gold fire, and lashed out  with a punch.

My staff came up to deflect, guiding the  punch to the side as I stepped out of the way to let it flow past me. It  was a flawless move, nearly perfectly in line with my overlay, which  was why I was so surprised when my back hit one of the dancing candle  flames and it ignited into a massive explosion of heat and pressure.

My  danger sense was what saved me. I triggered Mountain Stance even as the  flame touched me, and the defensive energy let me tank the blast, if  only because my body was lava rock right now. Still, my feet dug into  the ground, and I was forced to tank another blow as my Danger Sense  triggered a second time when Mel's foot smashed into my ribs in a brutal  spin kick.

"Ouch." I panted. "Ok, that was pretty clever.  You know my overlay works by focusing on possible attacks from the  person I'm using it on. You used the little flame wisps to create  multiple points of attack to confuse the issue."

If my  overlay tracked every possible attack or motion anyone could make around  me it would be so much input the ability would be useless. The overlay  worked best on one person, though it could be used on two or three if I  split my focus. That said, I hadn't know those wisps were counted as  attackers, so I hadn't done that.

Luckily for me, my  actual strategy had also worked though. Her punch that I'd deflected had  released a flame burst as well, and my staff had corrupted it as it was  deflected, blasting toxic flame off into the fog. No one had been hit,  but it was proof of concept at least.

She shook out her  hand. "You've gotten a lot more precise with your hits. That caught the  bone in my wrist perfectly. I take it this lava golem form is new? It's  certainly very interesting. Did your poison get stronger?"

I  spun my staff slowly, keeping it ready for an attack. I left my feet  planted and stayed in Mountain Stance. It would be a problem if I hit  another one of those mines when she attacked me next. Staying still and  tripling my defense seemed like my best move. "It is. Part of my Path."  Explaining Goetia to her would be complicated, as would explaining the  way it's control and manipulation aspects worked with my Fatewalker  build.

Finding ways for my Path to  harmonize with my skillset was the whole point of the staff art, so I  felt it was working out well so far. I'd come closer and closer to  quantifying exactly what about my first form made it synergize with the  Fatewalker build and the Path of the Doom Sovereign in general.

For  Belial it was obvious. Control. Belial demonstrated the manipulations  of fate, the path that others took during battle and how as the  Fatewalker I could reshape those paths. I was still working on the  connection for my next form. Belial had shown me the elements needed to  make one, and I had some ideas, but for the moment I only had the one.

Obviously  done with her waiting, Mel blurred forward again. I'd shifted the fog  to dampen her sight again. She had a rough idea where I was, but only  based on where I had been a minute ago. Being Might focused (as all fire  Ascendants were) she was faster than me, but State of Grace and the fog  combined with Danger Sense and the overlay let me counter the speed  difference.

I  shifted in place, leaving my feet on the ground, and redirected her  kick toward one of the floating candle lights. Her leg was corrupted by  Belial, and when it hit the floating flame, it detonated, corrupting the  explosion and consuming her in a ball of green fire.

When  it cleared, she was standing gingerly on her other leg, the one she'd  been leading with burned and unusable. She glared off into the fog. Just  to make sure my plan would work, I shifted the fog to allow sound again  and scuffed my foot loudly. "Ok, that was annoying. Those aren't  supposed to detonate for me. Might be dangerous to attack head on even  if I COULD move." She raised her hands, conjuring a pair of golden flame  serpents. "Guess we'll try range."

Then  she started to HURL the things at me. I grinned, because I'd been  waiting for this. Between Danger Sense and the Overlay, I saw them  coming from feet away, and I began to move. My staff spun, hitting the  snakes at the perfect angle to offset and deflect them, each one  corrupted by toxic green flames as I knocked them off course and sent  them shooting into the fog.

One  hit a large man with an axe, another a smaller woman with pigtails, and  a tall woman with short hair and a larger sword. Snake after snake flew  at me, and since I could see and she couldn't and I'd cut the sound to  her again as she attacked, she had no clue I was using all the Might to  take out her own teammates, just putting a little english on it and  sending it slamming into an enemy.

While  I worked, I checked in on the others. Abel was terrorizing a large  group, Callie was sneak attacking a trio of people in sequence to draw  attacks and try to get them to attack each other. They were all deeply  injured, those black slashes of abyss energy or whatever doing some  serious damage where they hit.

Chelsea  and Nathaniel were getting demolished, and the redhead  was cradling a  broken arm and trying not to stand on a knee that looked crooked as my  sister hurled waves of powerful white flame at her body guard to keep  him at bay.

I  was yanked away from the distraction by the feeling of a fucking fire  snake biting into my calf. I glanced down and realized that there was a  hole melted into the ground. She'd been using the barrage as a sonar to  map where I was and wasn't.

Cursing, I smacked the damned thing away. Mel laughed. "I felt that. Where did it get you? All I got was fangs in meat."

Slipping  to the side, I circled around her silently. I had taken out easily a  dozen of the team one bystanders, and leaving Mel around would be a  problem. When it came down to it though...I didn't want to actually kill  Mel. This was a rare opportunity for her, and the further she went the  better she could make her soul. Still it wasn't like I could just leave  her here to attack us.

I  summoned a shadow clone. Then lashed out with my staff, using the two  times multiplier from stealth attacks in Moonlit Night to my advantage  as I shattered both her elbow. I used Mercy Kill, then smashed in her  knee from the side, and had my clone pick her up and throw her over its  shoulder. I pointed randomly. "Run in that direction until you fall  apart or something kills you." It saluted me, then took off.

Breaking  all her limbs might have been a bit harsh, but at least she would live,  and she'd heal from that...eventually. Once the poison wore off. And he  limbs healed. So...hours. Oh well. I turned to help the others. I  caught sight of Chelsea retreating under the cover of a series of blasts  from Nathaniel, who looked like he was going to actually stay behind  and die for her. That was kind of nice.

I  waited for her to get clear, then left him to Callen as I checked on  who we had left to kill. Once I confirmed everyone with them was either  dead or gone, I headed over and grabbed the flag as I let the fog  dissolve. Grabbing it, I felt a massive rush of soul energy, and all the  wear of the battle just melted away as my soul progressed a full ten  percent of the way into yellow. The next flag probably wouldn't be as  much, maybe five percent, but still that was fast for yellow. I just  hoped I could break my second shackle in time to hit green while I was  here. For now though, I decided to go check on the others.